The Boston Celtics are once again world champions after demolishing the Dallas Mavericks in just five games in the 2024 NBA Finals.
Jaylen Brown won the Finals Most Valuable Player award while the likes of Jayson Tatum and Jrue Holiday are getting their flowers from the fans. However, Boston president of basketball operations Brad Stevens is also a hero for the franchise, considering the body of work he did from behind the front office’s desk.
Brad Stevens made the right moves for the Boston Celtics
Without Stevens, the Celtics probably wouldn’t have built the team that won Boston’s first championship since 2018. With the power that he possesses, Stevens was also said to have rejected ideas about going after elite stars like Kevin Durant and Kawhi Leonard in the past.
He was the coach who signed off on drafting each of them, then the executive entrusted with building the right team around them. He was the decision-maker on all of the trade offers that came in from around the league as teams hoped Boston would lose patience with one or both of them.
He was the man, sources said, who said no or decided not to pursue trades for Paul George (2017), Jimmy Butler (2018-19), Kawhi Leonard (2019) Anthony Davis (2019) and Kevin Durant (2022).
By choosing to let Tatum and Brown mature together without a superstar to potentially ruin the duo’s growth, Stevens must be feeling so vindicated after the Celtics finally won banner No. 18.
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